Slice of Life
by Crystal Mizuka
Summary: Sora and Riku attempt to work on the raft as a break from training. It doesn't go quite as planned.


Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Kingdom Hearts and its characters are the property of Disney and Square Enix.

 **Slice of Life**

 _ **A Prologue to the Kingdom Hearts Blades of Three Realms Role-Play**_

Sora and Riku weren't always busy training under Master Yen Sid at the Mysterious Tower. In fact, they spent a lot of time back on the Destiny Islands attempting to maintain at least the pretense of normalcy with the rest of their friends and their respective families. Part of that pretense was being achieved by the two of them working to rebuild the raft while spending time with Kairi. This time was different, however, as Roxas had come back to visit too after he had started his own training with Sora and Riku as well. As a result Roxas was actually the one spending time with both Kairi and Namine while Sora and Riku were left to their own devices. Naturally, without Kairi there to watch them, the two weren't making much progress with the raft.

Sora wasn't really motivated to finish the project because it seemed lame to continue working on the raft when he could just take the Gummi Ship anywhere in the worlds he wanted. And once Sora was bored it was hard for Riku to stay motivated while also trying to persuade Sora to keep working because they were trying to keep up appearances. To be honest, Riku was getting bored too. Both of them being bored meant that any work they did get done was sloppy at best. That was how it came to pass that when Sora set down his hammer for the umpteenth time and went to lean lazily against the mast the whole thing collapsed taking him down with it.

"Sora!" Riku called out in alarm as his friend went down along with the mast. Naturally, when he rushed over to try to help him up his leg got caught on one of the support ropes and he ended up tripping so that he landed awkwardly on top of Sora.

"Are you okay, Riku?" Sora asked from where he was pinned down with some concern.

"Yeah, I'm okay, what about you?" Riku tried to shake the rope off his leg so he could try to get back on his feet to help them both back up.

"I'm fine," Sora answered with his usual cheesy smile, glad that Riku hadn't been hurt by that fall.

"Glad to hear it," Riku responded as he finally managed to dislodge the rope. "Geez, our craftsmanship has hit an all time low, hasn't it? Maybe we should take a break."

Riku was going to get up once he had freed his leg, but then something he really wasn't expecting happened. Sora leaned up and kissed him full on the mouth. Riku was surprised, to say the least, but without even thinking he started kissing him back. It took a moment for him to realize what they were doing and then Riku hastily broke away wondering what the heck had gotten into Sora all of the sudden. Riku was blushing fiercely as he finally managed to drag himself off of Sora to get back on his feet.

"Where did that come from?" he demanded with obvious confusion. Riku did, nevertheless, extend a hand to help Sora get back on his feet once he started attempting to get up off his back.

"No idea," Sora was blushing too and he sounded every bit as confused as Riku felt at the moment. He accepted Riku's help getting up, but then both boys started having a very difficult time actually looking at one another. "I guess I didn't really think about it," Sora added after a slight pause.

Riku was relieved to see that there was no one else on their side of the island at the moment. That meant that luckily for the two of them they hadn't been spotted. "I guess I wasn't thinking either," Riku admitted with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Oh man, what are we going to tell Kairi?!" Sora exclaimed suddenly. He seemed almost frantic all of the sudden.

"Do you really want to tell her what just happened?" Riku managed to look at him again with an obvious frown. The kiss aside, he also glanced down at the handily disassembled raft with the mast collapsed on top of it. "Although, even if we're not going to tell her about the... kiss," Riku stumbled awkwardly over the word before he continued while trying to keep a straight face. "We're still going to have to come forward about what happened to the raft."

"Are you sure that's really okay?" Sora clearly wasn't comfortable with trying to hide something like that from Kairi.

"Look, if you want to tell her that badly, I won't stop you," Riku sighed again. "You were the one who instigated it after all."

Sora blushed intensely again. "I told you I don't know why I did that! And besides, you kissed me back!"

Riku clamped a hand over Sora's mouth. "Sora, if you keep yelling like that someone is going to hear you!"

* * *

Not long after that the two boys decided to give up on working on the raft for the afternoon because after what happened between them they seriously couldn't seem to concentrate on what they were doing. When they came around to the other side of the island where the other kids were playing or just hanging out they must have still been blushing and looking awkward because Selphie was staring at them both like there was something funny about them.

"Hey Sora, Riku, did something happen while you were working on the raft?" she inquired innocently enough.

"The mast broke," Riku shrugged pointedly while trying to maintain his composure. "We can't fix it with the supplies we have so we're done for the day."

"You heard Riku," Sora nodded vigorously in agreement even though he was finding it quite impossible to keep his own expression neutral on the subject. "That's all that happened!"

"Oh really, then why are you so embarrassed?" Wakka wandered over to join in the teasing.

"Because he's the one who broke it," Riku responded easily with his patented smirk.

Sora was impressed by how quickly Riku was able to use his embarrassment to turn the story around into something that was still easily believable. "Yeah, it was my fault that it happened so hopefully Kairi won't get too mad at me," he rubbed the base of his neck while looking sheepish to really try to sell it.

Selphie eyed them both skeptically. "Are you sure that's really all that happened?"

"I mean, that sure does sound like Sora, but something seems a bit off about you guys," Tidus chimed in finding the gossip to be rather amusing.

"There's nothing off about us, okay?" Riku stared intensely at the other three. "I'm just annoyed that this idiot managed to go and break the raft again."

"Well okay, if you say so," Wakka shrugged and tossed his ball high into the air before catching it again.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Riku will forgive you once you've apologized enough," Selphie smiled and tried to comfort Sora who had managed to look genuinely dejected in the face of Riku's bold-faced lying.

"Yeah, I guess so," Sora responded with a very real pout. Keeping this a secret was going to be harder than he thought.

"Say, I know what will cheer you up," Tidus grinned at Sora. "Why don't we have a match? You can go one-on-one with me or maybe we can convince Wakka and Selphie to go for a three-on-one to make it more of a challenge for you."

"Okay, you're on!" Sora perked up immediately. He figured a quick match against Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie might help to take his mind off things.

"Right, have fun with that," Riku waved over his shoulder as he continued down the beach away from all the overbearing chatterboxes.

* * *

Roxas was still with Kairi and Namine when they noticed Riku was headed their way. Unlike Sora and Riku who had been busy working on the raft, or so they thought, Roxas was using his time on the Destiny Islands to actually try to relax and the girls seemed to enjoy his company.

"So, does this mean you guys have given up on the raft for the day?" Kairi's greeting to Riku was accompanied by a mischievous sort of knowing smile.

"We can't exactly fix what's broken without the proper tools," Riku answered with a shrug. Why was Kairi smiling like that?

"Is everything alright with you and Sora?" Namine was as enigmatic as ever, but it wasn't hard for Riku to guess what she was hinting at. "It sounded like you two had an argument."

"It wasn't anything too serious," Riku answered while attempting to keep his tone and expression neutral to try to keep from giving anything away. "Sora broke the raft again so I scolded him for it."

The piercing gazes of the two girls was making him uncomfortable so Riku thought it would be easier to look at Roxas. Hold on, what the heck was he grinning about? Truth be told, Roxas was actually struggling not to laugh.

"Nothing too serious, huh?" Roxas sounded pretty skeptical about that.

"You know, you might be able to fool Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie with your intimidation tactics, but that's not going to work on us," Kairi continued in a whimsical tone. "And I'm not angry that Sora decided to kiss you."

All of the composure that Riku had been clinging onto crumbled in an instant. "Why the heck were you leading me on if you already knew?!"

"Well, because it's fun to tease you," Kairi giggled in amusement as Riku started freaking out.

"And you both were in on it too weren't you?" Riku gazed meaningfully between Roxas and Namine.

"It was kind of obvious from the way Sora was shouting about it earlier," Roxas gave a slight shrug.

"His voice really does carry around the island," Namine added in agreement.

"Anyway, it's not like I didn't know you and Sora have feelings for each other," Kairi continued with an honest smile. "You two have always been close."

"Well yeah, but it isn't like that between us!" Riku insisted as he became more visibly flustered.

"You don't really know that though," Kairi pointed out. "We both know Sora still isn't totally sure of his own feelings. That's why he's so clumsy about expressing himself."

"He really is hopeless," Roxas was inclined to agree.

"And I know it can be frustrating," Kairi continued with a meaningful look at Riku. "But you're pretty awkward too so that's what makes it cute."

Kairi's words dealt another severe blow to Riku's remaining dignity as he could no longer keep from blushing. "Did you really have to put it like that?"

"I don't know how else there is to put it," Kairi didn't miss a beat. "Does adorable sound better?"

"No, I think that's probably worse," Riku's face had turned an even brighter shade of red.

Kairi reached out and bopped him on the nose. "Then maybe next time you might know better than to try to hide it."

* * *

Riku had gone off to the small island to sulk after being so easily found out by Kairi, Roxas, and Namine. Talk about a humiliating defeat. Roxas almost felt sorry for him.

"You know, I'm glad I don't have to try to understand what's going on inside Sora's head anymore," Roxas commented as he settled on the beach with Namine. "I don't think I could handle it."

"Yes, I'm sure that would be very awkward for you," Namine couldn't help laughing.

Kairi had left them to go cheer Sora on while he was still competing with Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie a little ways down the beach. Naturally, she couldn't promise that she wasn't going to do something to mess with him too once the match was decided.

"I wonder how he's going to take it when he finds out she knows what happened between him and Riku," Roxas considered as he looked off in that direction.

"I'm sure Sora will manage somehow," Namine gave a thoughtful smile. "If you want to we could move closer."

"No, I think we'll get a perfectly decent show from here," Roxas shook his head. Just because he didn't rightfully know how exactly Sora was going to react didn't mean he couldn't anticipate that it was likely going to be very loud. Not to mention they could see him and Kairi perfectly fine from where they were sitting.

* * *

Sora had briefly forgotten the mishap with the raft while he was going at it with Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie. His selective obliviousness lasted as long as it took for Kairi to cross the beach to reach where they were battling it out on the sand. As soon as he saw her his attention was drawn away from what he was doing as he very immediately recalled what had happened between him and Riku and his face went very bright red at Kairi seeing him at the moment. This distraction cost him the match as Wakka's ball connected with his face knocking him onto his back with a somewhat dizzy and dazed look about him.

"That's too bad Sora, better luck next time," Selphie tried to let him off gently.

"But it's pretty hilarious how worked up you get around Kairi," Tidus grinned as he struck an amused victory pose.

"No hard feelings, ya?" Wakka casually helped Sora to get back on his feet.

Once Sora was standing on his own two feet again the three scattered to give him and Kairi some room, although they didn't go far because they were totally going to eavesdrop.

"Hey Kairi," Sora rubbed the back of his head looking pretty embarrassed, both because he was still blushing profusely and because of his rather unfortunate defeat mere seconds earlier.

"You looked like you were having fun," Kairi smiled at him with that same mischievous quality she had directed at Riku earlier. "It's too bad you lost that round."

Sora fidgeted rather adorably as he could barely stand to look at her. "Yeah, well, I guess I just had something else on my mind," he smiled sheepishly. "What happened to Roxas and Namine? I was pretty sure they were with you."

"It's a small island so I think they'll be alright by themselves for a little while," Kairi responded while looking at Sora like she was sizing him up. "I already heard from Riku that you busted up the raft again. Did you maybe want to talk about it?"

Sora gulped visibly. "Well, there really isn't much to talk about. It was my fault and I think he's still mad at me for it," he spoke awkwardly as he continued to fidget while averting his gaze from Kairi.

"You know Sora, you're a really bad liar," Kairi sighed as she prodded him in the chest.

"What did Riku tell you?!" Sora started to panic and his voice rose several octaves in the process.

"It doesn't really matter what Riku told me," Kairi answered while giving him a measuring glance. "I want to hear your side of it."

Sora shrank under Kairi's gaze as he began flailing dramatically. "Okay, so I knocked over the mast and then Riku kind of fell on top of me while he was trying to help me up and I kissed him and I don't know why I did that and then he was kissing me back and I'm sorry! It won't happen again!" he declared all in one breath.

Kairi couldn't help it. She started laughing. Of course, with how loudly he had shouted his explanation to her she wasn't the only one. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie were also laughing uncontrollably at Sora's expense. Off in the distance it looked like Roxas was also snickering and Namine seemed amused as well.

It took a moment, but Kairi at least tried to contain her laughter. "I'm... I'm sorry Sora," she apologized while attempting to keep her laughter under control. "I didn't think you were actually going to say it." Finally satisfied that she could smile without giggling she added, "But I am proud of you for actually telling me."

"So then, you're not angry?" Sora was still understandably freaked out.

"Maybe a bit jealous that I wasn't there to see it, but no, I'm not mad at you Sora," Kairi gave him a quick peck on the cheek and skipped off leaving Sora thoroughly dumbfounded as he collapsed onto his back once again twitching as he stared up at the sky that was his namesake.

"What just happened?" Sora wondered to himself in bewilderment.

 **End**

* * *

Author's Notes: Now, I'm sure some of you are probably wondering from the title "A prologue?" I mean, how many prologues could there possibly be? In fact, this is the fifth since the start of 2017. However, this is the first that actually works as its own standalone story and that's my reason for sharing it here. Who knows, depending on how this is received, perhaps there will be more in the future.


End file.
